McWilliams, Barrientez led Eagles in Mid-States Classic

Saturday, Oct 20, 2012

David McWilliams led OC with a sixth-place finish in the Mid-States Classic.

WINFIELD, Kan. (Oct. 20, 2012) – David McWilliams and Brayden Barrientez each posted a top-10 finish as Oklahoma Christian prepped for its biggest meet of the year on Saturday in the Mid-States Classic.

The Eagles ran without two of their top runners, Geoffrey Njonjo and Roberto Diaz, who opted to sit out the race, OC’s last event before running in the NCCAA Championship in Cedarville, Ohio, on Nov. 10. OC still finished third in the team race with a score of 114, trailing only NAIA powers (and former Sooner Athletic Conference rivals) Oklahoma Baptist (66) and Wayland Baptist (Texas) (88).

“Everyone executed really well today,” OC coach Wade Miller said. “I was interested to see how it would go after racing over distance last week (in the 10K Chile Pepper Festival). I know the men were running on tired legs but I am very pleased with the focus they ran with today.

“We wanted to run aggressive in the first few miles and across the board we accomplished that. David ran great with a season best, Brayden had a season best and Bryant and Tim (Zuercher) had big breakthroughs. Brennym (Kaelin) ran great to give us a solid five.”

Zuercher, another freshman, finished 36th in the 219-man field in 26:17.49, while Kaelin was 55th in 26:48.96. Joseph Zarazua (59th in 26:54.83) and Nick Stoots (60th in 26:56.03) rounded out the Eagles’ top seven.

Also running for the Eagles were Evan Fike (69th in 27:08.84), Trent Stephens (71st in 27:11.07), David Koistinen (79th in 27:27.37) and Riley Compton (208th in 34:21.47).